Many devices, e.g., musical instruments, and particularly stringed instruments such as guitars (both acoustic and electrical) are typically supported by a strap that passes over the shoulder and/or around the back of the neck of the instrument user (player). This support arrangement places a fair amount of weight and stress on the upper shoulder/neck area as well as pressure on the back itself. Since many musicians prefer to rehearse standing, and are often expected to perform standing as well, the shoulder/neck support leads to fatigue in the muscle areas even for those in good health especially for long durations of rehearsal and/or performance. Furthermore, many modern electric guitars and especially electric basses are quite heavy, so that supporting an instrument during extended periods of play is fatiguing to a musician, which in turn impairs the musician's ability to play well. Consequently, a support system for a musical instrument should optimally distribute the instrument's weight comfortably upon the musician's body.
Similar considerations may on occasion apply to other musical instruments, such as a saxophone or synthesizer controller or an electronic drum device; or to any type of tool supported in front of a user's body, especially when such a tool requires two-handed operation by the user.
Thus users of shoulder/neck supported instruments are feeling a great need for a solution to this problem, and this need is most especially urgent for those with health problems in their back, neck and/or shoulder areas.
Other factors come into play as well.
A musician may prefer to play both while sitting and standing (possibly with performance gyrations), and the musician may be required to alternately stand and sit in a single performance, and may want to continue playing while transitioning between sitting and standing, as well as while gyrating. However, many existing support systems either function poorly in one or another of the playing positions, or are difficult to change especially while both hands are busy playing the instrument.
The prior art has attempted to provide support devices for relieving strain from the performer by supporting the guitar and other stringed instruments through the use of straps, levers, belts, etc. U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,510,799; 3,323,698; 3,894,464; 4,014,240; 4,188,851; 4,251,016; 4,656,917; and 4,785,705 are examples of prior art attempts to provide such support of the stringed instrument for the performer. Most of these prior art devices utilize straps that are passed over the shoulders, around the neck, or otherwise across the torso and terminate in clasps that may be attached to the stringed instrument to support it in front of the performer. However, they all share at least one common disadvantage. Little thought has been given to providing the performer with the ability to carry on the wild gyrations of his/her body and of the stringed instruments, as is expected and common during personal performances, and to allow the stringed instrument to be re-set or re-supported in the playing position, at the front of the performer's body, following cessation of these gyrations. Such an ability would allow the performer to continue playing the music without the stress and strain of continually supporting the instrument, or from interrupting their performance to reattach the guitar or other instrument to the support structure.
The apparently contradictory demands for support and freedom of expression, for simplicity and significant weight distribution, and for seated-position and standing-position play have led to the development of many musical-instrument support systems, such as straps and belts and belt-hooks. However, in this crowded field, the solutions previously developed fail to address all the issues, or in some cases create other performance difficulties such as requiring substantial time to don or remove, or such as interfering with or detracting from the appearance of the performer's costume, or such as affecting the acoustics, durability, and/or value of the instrument.
Another factor that should be considered is the effect of a support structure on the instrument case. Many of the more expensive/valuable instruments such as electric guitars are supplied with a custom made guitar case that very closely fits around the guitar body in order to protect it from banging around in the case. These custom cases can be quite expensive by themselves, and because of the purposely tight fit the case will not accommodate any significantly sized support structures added onto the guitar body.
Historically, the most popular support for acoustical or electric guitar or electric bass has been the common “guitar strap” which is attached to the lower end (“the base”) of a guitar, from which point it passes behind the musician's back and forward over his or her shoulder, and is attached to either the tuner head of the instrument, or to the instrument's body near the neck. This type of support is simple, inexpensive to manufacture, familiar to musicians, quick to don or to remove, produces no discomfort to a female musician's breasts, and does not interfere with a musician's costume. Perhaps for these reasons, the common guitar strap has been the mainstay of guitar support systems for hundreds of years.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,359,203 to Cronos (2002) discloses a method and strap support assembly for holding a musical instrument in an upright position for alternate modes of play. A shoulder pad is added to a basic guitar strap, and an adjustable cord or strap is attached from the shoulder pad to the guitar's tuner head. Although this positions the guitar for both standing and sitting use, it does not take any of the weight of the guitar off the musician's shoulder and back. Although the shoulder pad helps somewhat by spreading out the weight over a larger portion of the shoulder area, the guitar still unequally pulls on one side of the neck, and the full weight still bears down on the spine/back of the musician.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,254,901 to McIntosh (1981), an additional strap segment is connected to the rear of a basic guitar strap, from which point it passes over the musician's other shoulder to attach to the instrument. This distributes the weight equally on both shoulders and is much more comfortable, but still leaves all of the instrument weight bearing downward and forward on the musician's back. Furthermore, the extra strap makes donning and removing more difficult.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,332,137 to Violette (1994), a belt is worn around a musician's waist, and from the rear center of this belt a strap segment passes over the musician's shoulder to attach to the instrument. Two short straps depend from the belt; and these are affixed to the rear surface of the instrument's body. This triangulated support will hold the instrument without swaying. Although this arrangement provides some weight redistribution to the musician's hips, the device is more expensive to manufacture, may interfere with the performer's costume, is time-consuming to don or remove, will not permit seated play and limits the range of movement for gyrating.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,371,570 to Lester (1968), a flat hook (“lug member” 39, 39′) is permanently attached to the rear of an instrument's body, permitting the musician to quickly place the hook over the top of the musician's pants so that the musician's trousers belt will support the weight of the instrument. The hook(s) are permanently affixed to the rear of the instrument by means of a “bridge member” 37 which is custom shaped to the guitar and glued to the edge of the guitar back. A disadvantage of this approach is that a serious musician's instrument may be quite valuable such that he/she will not want to glue anything onto it, thereby decreasing its value. Furthermore, Lester's device is expensive since it must be customized to fit the exact shape and size of the guitar back. Even further, Lester's device is bulky enough that it would likely require a modified or new instrument case to accommodate it.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,000,071 to Thomas (1991), discloses a guitar holder for securing a musical instrument to a waist belt. The apparatus includes a first anchor (17) for being attached to the waist belt; a second anchor (45) for being attached to the musical instrument; and securing structure for removably securing the first anchor to the second anchor. As for Lester's device, a downside is that the second anchor (a protruding flat loop) is permanently attached (33, 39, 41) to the guitar back, thereby being unsightly as well as damaging to the guitar's value, and perhaps also the sound quality (especially for acoustic guitars), and also would require modification or replacement of the guitar case. Another disadvantage is the first anchor which is a rather unsightly construction of metal rods that extends both upward and downward from the belt at the front of the musician's pants (see Thomas' FIG. 9). Since this first anchor cannot be removed except by unfastening the musician's belt, it will be distractingly visible when the musician does not have the guitar mounted on it, and also it would appear to interfere with bending at the waist for sitting.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,833,751 to Chapman (1973), a type of electric guitar is shown which uses a belt-hook similar to that of Lester as the primary weight-bearing support. A small, non-weight-bearing strap that passes around the musician's torso under one arm and over the opposite shoulder attaches near the instrument's tuner head to provide vertical stability. An apparent disadvantage is that the instrument must be donned or removed in two steps—first the belt-hook is positioned, and then the strap is put on and positioned. Furthermore, this upper strap can interfere with the performer's costume, and also may not be comfortable to female musicians. Finally, the belt-hook assembly positions the base of the instrument in such a way that it can interfere with most types of seating if the musician is attempting to play while seated.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,069,103 to Healy (1991), a belt-hook assembly (37) is attached to the rear surface of the body of an instrument, and the musician wears a belt assembly (11) to which is fastened a depending strap segment (23) which interconnects (e.g., buckles 35a, 35b) to a second strap segment (29) that is attached to the base of the instrument's body. Although the belt hook is easily unhooked, the buckle is not since it would take both hands to buckle, thereby making instrument changes awkward and slower. Also the attachments to the instrument would devalue an expensive instrument as well as its instrument case. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,037,416 to Cunningham (1962) similar but perhaps even greater disadvantages are apparent for a strap (14) that clips (28) onto a pants belt and attaches to the guitar with a clasp (42) that engages with a screw eye (50) that is screwed into the front face of the guitar, thereby not only detracting from appearance and value, but also possibly affecting acoustics and even structurally weakening the guitar.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,310,111 to Brent (1982) addresses the issue of shoulder, neck, back and arm strain by again using a belt (2) for bearing the weight of the musical instrument (10, e.g., guitar) on the hips, plus two-point connection between the belt and the guitar. On the front of the belt is an attachment plate (7) containing two slotted sockets (8 and 9). The guitar also has a support plate (11) held in place upon the back of the instrument by screws or bolts (12). The support plate contains two attachment bolts (13 and 15). The instrument then is held fast against the player by attaching the support plate (11) to the attachment plate (7). This is done by first sliding the adjustable bolt (13) into the slot of an elongated horizontal socket (8), and then placing the stationary bolt (15) into the vertical socket (9), and the bolt may be locked into place by placing a flexible securing loop (16) over the top of the slot in socket (9) and beneath a latch (17). All of this appears to be rather tedious to put together, and doesn't allow for easy transition from standing to sitting or even to walking while playing (since the guitar is held close to the body and also because of a leg strap). Also the screw-attached plate would be quite detrimental to instrument value as well as requiring a modified instrument case. Furthermore, as seen in Rachel Brent's FIG. 1, the belt with attachment plate rests on the front of the zipper area and includes a second strap (5) that passes around the inside of the thigh through the crotch. Not only is this unsightly, but likely very uncomfortable for a male musician.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide method and apparatus to support a guitar or other similar instruments while overcoming defects of the prior art. In particular, it is an object to overcome the problems of stress on the neck, shoulder, and back of a user of the instrument (e.g., a musician).
Additional objects are to provide support apparatus which is relatively inexpensive, familiar to musicians, quick to don or remove, and does not interfere with a performer's costume.
Further objects include providing an easy way to adjust the height and angle of the supported instrument.
Even further, performances on stage should not be hindered. The support should easily be detached and reattached to another guitar. It should allow use (e.g., playing) of the instrument while standing, sitting, walking, gyrating, and while transitioning between these modes of play.
Even further, it is an object to provide the support but not damage or even mar the appearance of the instrument or affect its acoustics. Therefore there shouldn't be any permanent modifications to the material or shape of the guitar (e.g., by screwing something extra onto the back, e.g., by gluing something on), and preferably there should not be additions to the instrument that would require modification of the instrument's case. Thus the value of the instrument (and its case) will not decrease, and the tone quality will not be compromised.